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GRAHAM LUSK 




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CilKRIGKX DEPOSIT. 



FOOD IN WARTIME 



By 

GRAHAM LUSK 



iSSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE IN 
NEW YORK CITY 



PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 

W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY 

1918 



TX35T 

. U % 



Copyright, 1918 

by 

W. B. Saunders Company 



FEB 13 1918 



PRINTED IN AMERICA 



©GI.A492257 



HQ f 



DEDICATED 

TO MY 

FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/foodinwartime01lusk 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. A Balanced Diet 7 

II. Calories in Common Life 23 

III. Rules of Saving and Safety 43 

Index 45 



NOTE 

The major parts of this small volume appeared under 
articles entitled "Food in War Time" in the Scientific 
Monthly and "Calories in Common Life" in Saunders' 
Medical Clinics of North America. 



FOOD IN WAR TIME 



A BALANCED DIET 

There is no doubt that under the conditions existing 
before the war the American people lived in a higher 
degree of comfort than that enjoyed in Europe. Hard 
times in America have always been better times than 
the best times in Europe. As a student in Munich in 
1890 I remember paying three dollars a month for my 
room, five cents daily for my breakfast, consisting of 
coffee and a roll without butter, and thirty-five cents 
for a four-course dinner at a fashionable restaurant. 
This does not sound extravagant, but it represents 
luxury when compared with the diet of the poorest 
Italian peasants of southern Italy. Two Italian scien- 
tists describe how this class of people live mainly on 
cornmeal, olive oil, and green stuffs and have done 
so for generations. There is no milk, cheese, or eggs 
in their dietary. Meat in the form of fat pork is taken 
three or four times a year. Cornmeal is taken as 
"polenta," or is mixed with beans and oil, or is made 
into corn bread. Cabbage or the leaves of beets are 

7 



8 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

boiled in water and then eaten with oil flavored with 
garlic or Spanish pepper. One of the families inves- 
tigated consisted of eight individuals, of whom two were 
children. The annual income was 424 francs, or $84. 
Of this, three cents per day per adult was spent for food 
and the remaining three-fifths of a cent was spent for 
other purposes. Little wonder that such people have 
migrated to America, but it may strike some as aston- 
ishing that a race so nourished should have become the 
man power in the construction of our railways, our 
subways, and our great buildings. 

Dr. McCollum will tell you that the secret of it all 
lies in the green leaves. The quality of the protein in 
corn is poor, but the protein in the leaves supplements 
that of corn, so that a good result is obtained. Olive 
oil when taken alone is a poor fat in a nutritive sense, 
but when taken with green leaves, these furnish that 
one of the peculiar accessory substances, commonly 
known as vitamines, which is present most abundantly 
in butter-fat, and gives to butter-fat and to the fat in 
whole milk its dominant nutritive value. The green 
leaves likewise furnish another accessory substance, 
also present in milk, a substance which is soluble in 
water and which is necessary for normal life. Further- 
more, the green leaves contain mineral matter in con- 
siderable quantity and in about the same proportions 
as they exist in milk. 

Here then is the message of economy in diet, corn the 
cheapest of all the cereals, a vegetable oil cheaper by 



A BALANCED DIET 9 

far than animal fat, which two materials taken together 
would bring disaster upon the human race, but if taken 
with the addition of cabbage or beet-tops they become 
capable of maintaining mankind from generation to 
generation. One can safely refer to such a diet as a 
balanced diet. Just as in the case of the modern 
experimental biological analysis of a balanced ration 
in which such a ration is given to rats and its efficiency 
as a diet is tested by its capacity to support normal 
growth and reproduction of the species, so here the 
experimental evidence is presented that corn and olive 
oil may become a sustaining diet when green leaves 
are a supplementary factor. 

This preliminary sketch shows several important 
fundamentals of food and nutrition. If one gives an 
animal a mixture of purified food-stuffs, pure protein, 
pure starch, purified fat, and a mixture of salts like the 
salts of milk, the animal will surely die. But if one 
substitutes butter-fat for purified fat, and adds a water 
solution of the natural salts of milk, the animal lives 
and thrives. 

Again, the illustration shows how corn may be so 
supplemented with other food-stuffs as to become 
extremely valuable in nutrition. It is especially 
valuable at the present time because corn is com- 
paratively cheap and plentiful. But one asks how 
about pellagra? It must be here definitely stated that 
the use of cornmeal is not the cause of pellagra, pro- 
vided the right kind of other foods be taken with it. 



10 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

Pellagra occurs in the "corn belt" of the United States, 
and especially among the poorer classes in the south. 
The disease has developed since the introduction in 
1880 • of highly perfected milling machinery which 
furnishes corn and wheat completely freed from their 
outer coverings. In Italy, where the milling of corn is 
still primitive, pellagra is not so severe as with us, 
because the corn offal is not completely removed and 
this contains the accessory food substances or vitam- 
ines which are essential to life. Pellagra is generally 
believed to be produced by a too exclusive use of 
highly milled corn and wheat flour in association with 
salt meats and canned goods, all of which are deficient 
in vitamines. The administration of fresh milk is 
naturally indicated. Goldberger states that after the 
addition of milk to the diet of a pellagrin, the typical 
clinical picture of pellagra no longer persists. The 
poor in the mill towns of the South lived too exclusively 
upon a corn diet without admixture of milk or fresh 
animal food or even of cabbage, and pellagra has been 
the consequence. 

The Food Administrator asks us to eat corn bread 
and save the wheat for export. It is a very small 
sacrifice to eat corn bread at one meal or more a day. 
Indian corn saved our New England ancestors from 
starvation, and we can in part substitute it for our 
wheat and send the latter abroad to spare others from 
starvation. The simplest elements of patriotism de- 
mand that we do this. Therefore let us cry, "Eat corn 



A BALANCED DIET 11 

bread and save the wheat for France, the home of La- 
fayette!" 

The United States Department of Agriculture has 
estimated that only 6.6 per cent, of our corn crop is 
used for human food, and of this, 3.4 per cent, is con- 
sumed by the farmers and their families. 

The substitution of foods is no new thing. We find 
that an English contemporary author thus described 
the food habits of the English people during the 
" golden days of Good Queen Bess," three hundred and 
fifty years ago: 

"The gentilitie commonly provide themselves sufficiently of 
wheat for their own tables, whylest their household and poore 
neighbours in some shires are forced to content themselves with 
rye or barleie; yea and in time of dearth many with bread made 
eyther of beanes, peason* or otes, or of altogether and some 
acornes among." 

A difference between those days and ours is that the 
" gentilitie" and the "poore neighbours" are now 
asked to unite in reducing the consumption of wheat 
and to do this for the safety and welfare of all mankind. 

Another point in war economy is the use of whole 
milk in greater quantity, and the diminution of the use 
of butter and cream. Cream is bought only by the 
wealthy, but in sufficient volume to largely reduce the 
amount of whole milk available. In Germany before 
the war 15 per cent, of the milk supply of that country 
was used for the production of cream. , The consequent 
* An obsolete plural of pease. 



12 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

restriction of the milk supply was distinctly to the 
detriment of the health of the peasant farmers of 
Bavaria. Regarding the use of butter, a Swiss pro- 
fessor, himself an expert in nutrition, complains that 
whereas in his youth children were never given butter 
on their bread for breakfast, not even when there was 
no jam in the house, yet to-day absence of butter from 
the table is held to be indicative of direst poverty. 

If one takes a pint of whole milk daily, or even, as we 
have seen, cabbage or beet-tops in its stead, one may 
take fat in the forms of olive oil or cottonseed oil, 
corn oil, cocoanut oil, peanut butter, or in other vege- 
table oils, without possible prejudice to health. 

Osborne and Mendel, and more recently Halliburton, 
have pointed out that oleomargarine as prepared from 
beef-fat contains the fat-soluble growth-promoting 
accessory substance or vitamine which is present in 
butter-fat, but which is not contained in vegetable 
oils or in lard. 

Halliburton and Drummond summarize the practical 
results of their work as follows: 

But when we approach the subject of the dietary of the poorer 
classes, the question is a more serious one. In ordinary times the 
consumption of beef dripping, which is considerable among the 
poor, would to a large extent supply the lacking properties of a 
vegetable-oil margarine. But at the present time beef itself is 
expensive, and the opportunities of obtaining dripping are there- 
fore minimized. At the same time the three important foods for 
children already enumerated (milk, butter, eggs) have risen in 
cost, so as to be almost prohibitive to those with slender incomes. 



A BALANCED DIET 13 

The vegetable-oil margarines still remain comparatively cheap, 
and the danger is that unless measures are taken to insure a proper 
milk supply for infants at a reasonable charge, these infants may 
run the risk of being fed, so far as fat is concerned, entirely upon 
an inferior brand of margarine, destitute of the growth-promoting 
accessory substance. It would be truer economy even for the 
poor to purchase smaller quantities of an oleo-oil margarine if 
they cannot afford the luxury of real butter. 

The legal restrictions placed upon the sale of oleo- 
margarine and the taxes enhancing its cost, now in 
operation in many of our states, are without warrant 
in morals or common sense and should be entirely 
abolished in times like these. A well-made brand of 
oleomargarine is much more palatable than butter of 
the second grade, and certainly for cooking purposes 
is just as valuable. 

Whole milk contains everything necessary for growth 
and maintenance, protein, fat, milk-sugar, salts, water, 
and the unknown but invaluable accessory substances. 
It is of such prime importance that each family should 
have this admirable food that I have suggested that 
no family of five should ever buy meat until they have 
bought three quarts of milk. The insistence by sci- 
entific men upon the prime importance of milk has 
probably had something to do with its rapid enhance- 
ment in price. This latter factor is greatly to be 
regretted. I have often wondered why it was that a 
quart bottle of a fancy brand of milk in New York 
should cost about as much as a quart of vin ordinaire 
on the streets of Paris, and a quart bottle of cream as 



14 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

much as a quart of good champagne in Paris. Despite 
much denial it appears to me that milk is not sold as 
cheaply as it ought to be. Everything should be done 
to conserve our herds of cows for the increased supply 
of whole milk and incidentally for the manufacture of 
cheese and of milk powder or of condensed milk. 

If one takes milk with other foods, meat may be 
dispensed with. Thus Hindhede advocates as ideal a 
diet consisting of bread, potatoes, fruit, and a pint of 
milk. Splendid health, both of body and mind, the 
peasants' comparative immunity to indigestion, kidney 
and liver disease, as well as an absolute immunity to 
gout, is the alluring prospect held out by the following 
dietary: 

Graham bread 1 pound 

Potatoes 2 pounds 

Vegetable fat ]4. pound 

Apples \}4 pounds 

Milk 1 pint 

This bread-potato-fruit diet gives a very excellent 
basis of wholesome nutrition. The potatoes yield an 
alkaline ash which has a highly solvent power over uric 
acid, and, therefore, a good supply of these valuable 
tubers is needed by the nation. 

To most Americans the dietary factors here de- 
scribed will appear to be merely attenuated hypotheses, 
fit only for philosophic contemplation. For, in real 
life, it is the roast beef of Old England, or some other 
famed equivalent, that makes its appeal. Far be it 



A BALANCED DIET 15 

from me to disparage the feast following a hunt of the 
wild boar or other feasts famed in song and story, but 
that is not the question. The question is, is meat 
necessary? The description of the Italian dietary 
answers this in the negative. 

But is meat desirable? The Italian experimenters 
believed that the addition of four or eight ounces of 
meat to the dietaries of some of their subjects increased 
their physical and also their mental powers. The 
increase in mental power due to change in diet has 
always seemed to me to be a figment of the imagination 
and not susceptible of demonstration. Thomas lived 
for twenty-four days on a diet of starch and cream, 
during four days of which time the very small quantity 
of three ounces of. meat was taken daily, and he found 
his mental and muscular power unchanged. 

A remarkable experiment on the effect of a potato 
diet has been reported by Hindhede. An individual 
partook of a diet of between four and one-half and 
nine pounds of potatoes daily, with some vegetable 
margarine, during a period of nearly three hundred 
days. The rule was to eat only when hungry and then 
the potatoes could be taken at the rate of an ounce a 
minute. During the last three months (ninety-five 
days) of the experiment severe mechanical work was 
performed and the total food intake for the latter 
period amounted to 770 pounds of potatoes and 48 
pounds of margarine. What could be more simple 
than stocking the cellar with coal, potatoes, and a tub 



16 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

of margarine! Who then would worry about the com- 
plexities of modern life? 

Of course, vegetarianism is no new thing. Its prin- 
cipal exponent was Sylvester Graham. It so happens 
that he was the brother of my great grandmother, and 
of him my father wrote in 1861, "long lanky Sylvester 
Vegetable Graham, leanest of men." Graham in 
1829 began the advocacy of moderation in the use of 
a diet consisting of vegetables, Graham bread, fruits, 
nuts, salts and pure water, and excluding meat, sauces, 
salads, tea, coffee, alcohol, pepper, and mustard. The 
first effect of this diet, which largely eliminated the 
flavors, was to reduce the weight through lowering the 
intake of food, but the health of many followers of the 
diet appears to have been benefited. The "Graham 
System" of dieting suffered from withering criticism 
at the time. He published in 1837 a little book en- 
titled, "Bread and Bread Making," bearing on its 
cover the scriptural quotation "Bread strengtheneth 
man's heart." He says in this volume: 

But while the people of our country are entirely given up as they 
are at present, to gross and promiscuous feeding on the dead car- 
casses of animals and to the untiring pursuit of wealth, it is per- 
haps wholly vain for a single individual to raise his voice on a sub- 
ject of this kind. 

The well-known work of Chittenden has shown that 
when the protein intake is reduced by one half or less 
of that which the average American appetite suggests, 
professional men, soldiers and athletes may be main- 



A BALANCED DIET 17 

tained in the best physical condition. One of Yale's 
champion intercollegiate athletes won all the events 
of the year in which he was entered while living on a 
reduced protein or Chittenden diet. Upon such a 
diet, or less than that, the people of Germany are now 
living to-day. The principle involves eating meat 
very sparingly, taking half a piece where one would 
have formerly been taken, and using it only for its 
flavor. The wing of a chicken has little meat on it 
and yet if eaten together with vegetables it gives the 
meal a different quality than it would have had with- 
out it, and to this extent its use is warranted. The 
muscles are, active when hard labor is done, but the 
muscles do not need meat for the performance of their 
work. A fasting man may have considerable power. 
The popular idea of the necessity of meat for a laboring 
man may be epitomized in the statement: a strong 
man can eat more meat than a weak one, hence meat 
makes a man strong. The proposition is evidently 
absurd. 

Not only is the taking of meat without beneficial 
relation to the capacity for muscular work, but, in fact, 
an exclusive meat diet results in the sensation that work 
is being accomplished with difficulty. When meat is 
metabolized it stimulates the body to a higher heat 
production, as great an increase as 55 per cent, having 
been observed in a resting man. No other food-stuff 
will accomplish so great an increase. It is especially 
worthy of note that this increase in the heat production, 



18 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

due to the specific dynamic action of protein, as it is 
called, cannot be utilized in the execution of mechanical 
work. When the organism of a laborer at work in a 
hot environment is called upon to eliminate extra heat, 
due to the work he is performing, he must also eliminate 
the quota of heat which is derived from any large 
ingestion of meat. Hence, the American farmer in 
the hot weather can eat little meat. 

So far as is known, taking meat even in large excess 
is not harmful, but it represents luxury and waste. 
According to an oral statement by A. E. Taylor, the 
results of many thousand urinary analyses in Germany 
during the second year of the war showed about 7 grams 
of nitrogen excreted, which would correspond to a 
dietary containing about 45 grams of protein. As a 
matter of fact, this is the equivalent of the reduced 
protein dietary of Chittenden, and it is reported that 
no ill effects can be attributed to it. The flavor of 
meat is such that it lends itself to the easy preparation 
of a palatable meal, but this flavor could undoubtedly 
be as well obtained if the present consumption of meat 
were cut in two. It is a question of habit, but with the 
present reduced supply of meat one must adopt new 
habits. It would be highly desirable if the grain now 
fed to fatten beef were given to maintain herds of 
milch cows. 

Indulgence in meat is due to the desire for strong 
flavor. With the increased distribution of wealth, the 
demand for meat grows. Its consumption by*all classes 



A BALANCED DIET 19 

had vastly increased in all prosperous countries prior 
to the war. It is well, however, to remember that its 
use has been excessive and unnecessary, and its price 
can be cut by wholesale voluntary abstinence. The 
British people have suffered no hardship in the recent 
reduction of their meat ration. 

A British Commission has reported to Parliament 
that it takes three times as much fodder to produce 
beef as it does to produce milk or pork of the same food 
value. Since cows eat chiefly hay and grass and pigs 
eat grain the cost of the production of a unit value of 
milk is much less than the cost of the same value in 
the form of pork. It takes only fifty per cent, more 
fodder to produce veal than to produce pork. Milk, 
pork, and veal have long been the established protein- 
containing foods of nations on the continent of Europe. 
According to these figures beef should cost in the market 
twice what veal costs, and yet the butcher charges 
nearly the same for the two. It would save food for 
milk production if steers were eaten as veal and not 
fed up into beef cattle. A suitable tax on all steers 
over a year old would accomplish this result. If all 
heifers were developed into milch cows and no cow 
capable of giving milk in quantity were slaughtered, 
the country would be placed on a much better basis 
than at present. It might make beef expensive, but 
there is every reason why it should be expensive. It 
would increase the dairy business, which is evidently a 
need of the times, something for the protection of the 



20 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

welfare of mankind. For it must be remembered that 
a well-nourished cow during a single year will give in 
the form of milk as much protein and two and a half 
times the number of calories as are contained in her 
own body. 

This was written before the publication of the follow- 
ing words of Armsby, the foremost authority on animal 
nutrition: 1 

Roast pig, to those who like it, is not only a delicacy but a 
valuable article of diet, but nevertheless, it is possible to pay too 
high a price for it, and while a proposal to restrict rather than to 
promote meat production in the present crisis may appear both 
irrational and unpatriotic it may nevertheless be in the interest 
of true food economy. . . . 

It may be roughly estimated that about 24 per cent, of the 
energy of grain is recovered for human consumption in pork, about 
18 per cent, in milk and only about 3.5 per cent, in beef and mut- 
ton. In other words, the farmer who feeds bread grains to his 
stock is burning up 75 to 97 per cent, of them in order to produce 
for us a small residue of roast pig, and so is diminishing the total 
stock of human food. . . . 

The task of the stock feeder must be to utilize through his skill 
and knowledge the inedible products of the farm and factory, such 
as hay, corn stalks, straw, bran, brewers' and distillers' grains, 
gluten feed, and the like, and to make at least a fraction of them 
available for man's use. In so doing he will be really adding to the 
food supply and will be rendering a great public service. Rather 
than seek to stimulate live stock husbandry the ideal should be to 
adjust it to the limits set by the available supply of forage crops 
and by-product feeding stuffs while, on the other hand, utilizing 

1 "Roast Pig," Science, 1917, xlvi, 160. 



A BALANCED DIET 21 

these to the greatest practicable extent, because in this way we 
save some of what would otherwise be a total loss. . . . 

The hog is the great competitor of man for the higher grades of 
food, and in swine husbandry as ordinarily conducted we are in 
danger of paying too much for our roast pig. Cattle and sheep, 
on the other hand, although less efficient as converters, can utilize 
products which man can not use and save some of their potential 
value as human food. From this point of view, as well as on ac- 
count of the importance of milk to infants and invalids, the high 
economy of food production by the dairy cow deserves careful 
consideration, although of course the large labor requirement is a 
counterbalancing factor. 

At any rate, it is clear that at the present time enthusiastic 
but ill-considered "booming" of live stock production may do 
more harm than good. If it is desirable to restrict or prohibit the 
production of alcohol from grain or potatoes on the ground that it 
involves a waste of food value, the same reason calls for restriction 
of the burning-up of these materials to produce roast pig. This 
means, of course, a limited meat supply. To some of us this may 
seem a hardship. Meat, however, is by no means the essential 
that we have been wont to suppose and partial deprivation of it 
is not inconsistent with high bodily efficiency. Certainly no 
patriotic citizen would wish to insist on his customary allowance 
of roast pig at the cost of the food supply of his brothers in the 
trenches. 

The United States Department of Agriculture has 
estimated that a pig that has reached the weight of 
150 pounds should be slaughtered, because beyond 
that weight the cost of the quantity of feed required 
to maintain the animal is out of proportion to the 
gain in food value of the pig. One might, therefore, 
call a pig weighing 150 pounds a maximal economic 
hog. 



II 

CALORIES IN COMMON LIFE 

A person is properly nourished who receives adequate 
energy in the form of carbohydrate and fat (and inci- 
dentally protein); adequate material for repair of 
wornout parts, such as protein and mineral salts; and 
the diet must contain certain accessory food substances 
known as food hormones or "vitamins." Also, it 
must contain water. But this is not all, for the food 
offered must be acceptable to the palate of the indi- 
vidual. A member of the French Scientific Commission 
which visited the United States in the summer of 1917, 
when questioned regarding the use of corn bread in 
France, replied "on ne peut pas changer des habitudes." 
The proper nutrition of an individual depends, there- 
fore, not only upon a sufficient supply of food from a 
mechanistic standpoint, but also upon the reasonable 
satisfaction of the sense of appetite. These dual funda- 
mentals of proper nutrition should be ever borne in mind. 

Heat from the sun enters into the composition of the 
food substances when they are being built up in the 
plants, and this energy, which is latent in the food, is 
set free in the animal body and is used as the source of 
power behind all the physical activities of the body. 
The energy can all be recovered as heat and measured 
in the form of calories. According to the principles of 

23 



24 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

the law of the conservation of energy, heat is not de- 
structible. The understanding of the value of a calorie 
is indispensable for the comprehension of nutrition. A 
calorie is the measure of a unit of heat, or the quantity 
of heat necessary to raise a liter of water from 0° to 1° 
Centigrade. Apparatus has been invented for measur- 
ing the heat production of a man, an apparatus which 
is called a calorimeter or a measurer of calories. If one 
puts a man weighing, say, 156 pounds in the box of 
such an apparatus, so that he lies comfortably on a bed 
in complete muscular relaxation, and before his break- 
fast, one finds that he produces 70 calories an hour. 
Only in certain types of disease is there any variation 
from this normal, though of course the weight of the 
man makes a difference in his requirement for energy. 
If, at the same time the subject is in the box, the quan- 
tity of oxygen which he absorbs is measured and if cer- 
tain other chemical analyses be carried out, one can 
calculate the exact amounts of protein, fat, and sugar 
which have been oxidized by this oxygen. Now, if one 
calculates how much heat ought to have been set free 
from the oxidation of these quantities of protein fat and 
carbohydrate, it is discovered that the heat which 
ought to have been produced is exactly that quantity 
which was measured as having been produced by the 
man. This measurement represents the basal metabol- 
ism of a man at complete rest, when his oxidative activi- 
ties are at their lowest ebb. 

The basal metabolism as measured by 70 calories per 
hour in the case of this individual represents the sum of 



CALORIES IN COMMON LIFE 25 

the fuel needed — (1) to maintain the beating of the 
heart, which every minute of a man's life moves the 
blood or one-twentieth part of the weight of the body, in 
a circle through the blood-vessels; (2) to maintain the 
muscles of respiration that the blood may be purified in 
the lungs; (3) to maintain the body temperature at 
that constant level which is so characteristic that a 
slight variation signifies illness, and (4) to maintain in 
the living state the numerous tissues of the body. Any 
extraneous muscular movements are carried out in vir- 
tue of an increased oxidation of materials and the heat 
production rises above the level of the basal metabol- 
ism with increased muscular effort. For a long time 
the power for the maintenance of the human machine 
can be furnished by its own body fat, as is seen in cases 
of prolonged fasting, but usually the power is derived 
instead from the food-fuel which is taken. The great 
question in the world to-day is whether or not a suffi- 
cient quantity of food-fuel is available to support the 
human family. The question of calories is not an 
academic one, but an intensely practical one. 

Science strives to express itself in mathematic terms, 
and this paper is written with that end in view. 

Phenomena of life are phenomena of motion. These 
motions are maintained at the expense of chemical 
energy liberated in the oxidative breakdown of carbo- 
hydrate, fat, and protein. Furthermore, the protein 
structure of the body cells and the salts of the bones and 
other tissues are in a constant state of wearing down. 
The energy for the human machine and the materials 



26 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

for its self-repair are taken in the form of food. The 
general term metabolism includes all the chemical activi- 
ties which take place under the influence of living cells. 

The total quantity of heat produced by the body is a 
measure of the intensity of the oxidation of carbohy- 
drate, fat, and protein within the body. 

It is important to know definitely whether there is 
any constant measure of the level of the basal metabol- 
ism in normal people, so that one may determine in 
cases of disease whether the heat production is normal 
or increased or decreased. 

Rubner discovered that the heat production of mam- 
malia during rest was the same per square meter of sur- 
face whether the being was a horse, a man, a dog, or a 
mouse. The proposition has appeared so improbable 
as to call forth much antagonism. DuBois deserves 
the credit of having established this relationship for 
man beyond the possibility of a doubt. He was able 
to do this on account of his discovery of a new and ac- 
curate method of measuring the area of the body sur- 
face. It appears from his work that the basal metabol- 
ism for men between twenty and fifty years old is ap- 
proximately 40 calories per hour per square meter of 
body surface, within a =*= error of 10 per cent. 

Boothby has found that the metabolism of patients 
who have recovered their health after hospital opera- 
tions and who have been confined in the hospital be- 
tween twenty and fifty days does not vary from the 
normal standard of DuBois. 

It has been found by DuBois that the basal metabol- 



CALORIES IN COMMON LIFE 27 

ism in boys of twelve is 25 per cent, higher than for an 
adult of the same height and weight, or 50 calories per 
square meter of body surface; and that in boys of fif- 
teen the metabolism is 11 per cent, higher than for the 
adult of the same size and shape, or 44 calories per square 
meter of body surface (unpublished work of DuBois). 
These results explain the large appetites of boys. 

Women show a metabolism which is 7 per cent, lower 
than that of men, or 37 calories per hour per square 
meter of surface. 

From the charts of the average heights and weights 
of men varying between fifteen and fifty-five years old, 
given by American life insurance companies, Mr. H. V. 
Atkinson, of my laboratory, has calculated the basal 
metabolism in a table here presented. Unfortunately, 
the weights given in these statistics include clothes 
worn by the individuals. The calculated heat produc- 
tion, however, is in each case based upon the weight 
without clothes. The table is computed from the fol- 
lowing values : 

Calories per 
square meter 
Age in years of surface 

15.. 44 

20-50 40 

55 37 

The table may also be used as follows: 
To find the metabolism of — 

Women between twenty to fifty years, multiply values for 

man by 0.93. 
Boys of twelve to thirteen years, multiply values for boys of 
fifteen years by 1.10. 



28 



FOOD IN WAR TIME 



THE BASAL METABOLISM OF MEN 

Calculated from values of the basal metabolism determined by the 
methods of DuBois and applied to a table showing the average weights 
of 221,819 men of different ages and heights compiled from the sta- 
tistics of the medico-actuarial investigation of 1912. 



Age. 

Heat per 

square meter 

of surface 



15 years. . 

44 calories 

20 years . . 
40 calories 

25 years . . 
40 calories 

30 years . . 
40 calories 

35 years . . 
40 calories 

40 years . . 
40 calories 

45 years . . 
40 calories 

50 years . . 
40 calories 

55 years . . 
37 calories 



5 ft. 
Oin. 


5 ft. 
2 in. 


5 ft. 
4 in. 


5 ft. 

6 in. 


5 ft. 
8 in. 


5 ft. 
10 in. 


6 ft. 
Oin. 


6 ft. 
2 in. 


Lbs. 
Cals. 

107 
1510 


Lbs. 
Cals. 

112 
1584 


Lbs. 
Cals. 

118 
1658 


Lbs. 
Cals. 

126 
1753 


Lbs. 
Cals. 

134 
1837 


Lbs. 
Cals. 

142 
1922 


Lbs. 
Cals. 

152 
2006 


Lbs. 
Cals. 

162 
2096 


117 
1430 


122 
1498 


128 
1565 


136 
1647 


144 
1719 


152 
1796 


161 
1868 


171 
1949 


122 
1459 


126 
1517 


133 
1594 


141 
1671 


149 
1738 


157 
1820 


167 
1896 


179 
1992 


126 
1478 


130 
1536 


136 
1604 


144 
1685 


152 
1757 


161 
1839 


172 
1920 


184 
2007 


128 
1488 


132 
1556 


138 
1613 


146 
1695 


155 
1767 


165 
1853 


176 
1939 


189 
2035 


131 
1498 


135 
1565 


141 
1623 


149 
1709 


158 
1781 


168 
1863 


180 
1959 


193 
2055 


133 
1507 


137 
1570 


143 
1632 


151 
1719 


160 
1791 


170 

1872 


182 
1968 


195 
2064 


134 
1517 


138 
1575 


144 
1642 


152 
1724 


161 
1796 


171 
1881 


183 
1973 


197 
2074 


135 
1449 


139 
1485 


145 
1548 


153 
1620 


163 
1692 


173 
1773 


184 
1854 


198 
1949 



6 ft. 

4 in. 



Lbs. 
Cals. 

172 
2186 

181 
2035 

189 
2083 

196 
2112 

201 
2136 

206 
2160 

209 
2169 

211 
2184 

212 
2052 



CALORIES IN COMMON LIFE 29 

The basal metabolism of an average boy of thirteen 
years of age weighing 80 pounds and of a height of 4 
feet, 10 inches, may be calculated as 1525 calories per 
day. This is the same as that of a man twenty-five 
years old, weighing 126 pounds and 5 feet, 2 inches tall. 

A boy thirteen years old and weighing 156 pounds, 
his height being 6 feet, 1 inch (there are such cases), 
would have a basal metabolism of 2300 calories, or 
larger than that of any grown man given in the table — 
larger than a man weighing 211 pounds and 6 feet, 4 
inches in height. I personally know a boy of this age 
and size. His parents are said to have sent him to 
boarding school in order to reduce their food bills. 

It is evident from this discussion that the food re- 
quirement of boys over twelve years old is about the 
same as that of men. The emaciation of the children 
of the poor probably reduces their requirement of food. 
It is not generally recognized that the boy needs as 
much food as his father. The requirements of girls 
have not been investigated, but they probably need as 
much as their mothers. 

These data will give with close scientific precision the 
minimal requirement for energy which is necessary for 
the maintenance of the bed-ridden. 

Ordinary life, however, is not constituted after this 
fashion. "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat 
bread." 

From the work of F. G. Benedict one may calculate 
the increase in the basal metabolism, as follows: 



30 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

Increase in 
the basal 
metabolism 
Occupation in per cent. 

Sitting 5 

Standing, relaxed 10 

Standing, hand on a staff 11 

Standing, leaning on support 3 

Standing, "attention" 14 

If one wishes to determine from the basal metabolism 
table the heat production of a person who is confined 
to his room, one should add to the metabolism of the 
twenty-four hours the increase above the basal for 
those hours of the day during which he is sitting in a 
chair or standing. 

Passing to a consideration of the subject of mechani- 
cal work done by a man, one finds that it requires about 
1.1 calories to transport a pound of body weight three 
miles during an hour, and that increasing power must 
be generated if the speed is increased above this rate of 
maximal economic velocity. 

These relations are shown below: 

Extra calories 
per hour required 
to move 1 pound 
Rate of movement of body 

Walking 3 miles per hour 1.1 

Walking 5.3 miles per hour 3.6 

Running 5.3 miles per hour 3.1 

If one wishes to determine the heat production of a 
man weighing 156 pounds and 5 feet, 7 inches in height, 
and who is walking or running, the following calcula- 
tions can be made: 



CALORIES IN COMMON LIFE 31 

Rate of travel per hour in miles 3* 5.3* 5-3t 

Cals. Cals. Cals. 

Metabolism for transporting 156 pounds ... 172 562 484 

Basal metabolism 70 70 70 

Add for standing 7 7 7 

249 639 561 

* Walking. f Running. 

If the man's food cost 10 cents a thousand calories, 
it may be calculated that he would have to walk over 
eight miles at a rate of three miles per hour in order to 
save money when he pays a 5-cent carfare. (This, 
however, does not include the cost of shoe leather.) 

The carrying of a load of 44 pounds is done at the 
same expenditure of energy as the carrying of one's own 
body weight when the rate is three miles an hour, so 
the soldier's equipment would call for the added ex- 
penditure of 48 calories (44X1.1), making his total 
hourly expenditure of energy nearly 300 calories (249+ 
44) during a hike on a level road. His daily require- 
ment for energy might be: 

Calories 
Sleeping 8 hours at 70 calories per hour. . 560 
Resting in camp 6 hours at 77 calories per 

hour 462 

Hike of 30 miles, 10 hours at 300 calories 

per hour 3000 

4022 

This would be the heat production of a soldier on a 
day of a "forced march." The ordinary day's march is 
only fifteen miles. 



32 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

This assumes a level road. If, however, there are 
hills to climb and the body weight and the pack are 
lifted 1000 feet during the hike, this is done at the addi- 
tional expense of approximately 0.96 calory of energy 
per pound of weight lifted. If the man weighed 156 
pounds and the pack 44 pounds, the additional fuel re- 
quirement would be 192 calories (200X0.96). The 
total energy requirement for this kind of a hike would 
have been 4200 calories. Walking down hill is accom- 
plished at an expenditure of slightly less energy than 
walking on the level, but this factor need not concern 
one. 

Supposing, however, this individual were running, 
lightly clad, on a level road in a race for a distance of 40 
miles at the rate of 5.3 miles per hour, he would com- 
plete the distance in seven hours and thirty-three min- 
utes, which is a reasonable record. His metabolism 
might thus be calculated: 

Calories 
Sleeping 10 hours at 70 calories per hour 700 
Resting 6 hours, 23 minutes, at 77 calories 

per hour 497 

Running 7 hours, 33 minutes, at 561 cal- 
ories per hour 4236 

5433 

It is a matter of record that a man has run between 
Milwaukee and Chicago, a distance of 80 miles, in about 
fifteen hours. Such an amount of work would have re- 
quired over 9000 calories for the day. 



CALORIES IN COMMON LIFE 33 

These calculations are all based upon experimental 
results obtained in various laboratories in different 
parts of the world and can be accepted as being free 
from any gross error. 

It is evident that the energy requirement is propor- 
tional to the amount of mechanical energy expended. 

One may turn now to the fuel needs in terms of cal- 
ories in certain industrial pursuits. According to 
Becker and Hamalainen, the quantity of extra metabol- 
ism per hour required in various pursuits is as follows: 

Extra calories of 
metabolism per 
hour due to 
Occupations of women: occupation 

Seamstress 6 

Typist 1 24 

Seamstress using sewing machine. . 24- 57 

Bookbinder 38- 63 

Housemaid 81-157 

Washerwoman 124-214 

Occupations of men: 

Tailor 44 

Bookbinder 81 

Shoemaker 90 

Carpenter 116-164 

Metal worker 141 

Painter (of furniture) 145 

Stonemason , 300 

Man sawing wood 378 

1 Observation of Carpenter. 

To use this table one may seek the basal metabolism 
of the individual, add 10 per cent, for sixteen hours of 



34 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

wakefulness when the person is sitting or standing, and 
then multiply the factors in the last table by the num- 
bers of hours of work. For example, if one takes the 
individual weighing 156 pounds, one obtains the follow- 
ing requirements of energy if his business were that of a 
tailor and he worked eight hours a day: 

Calories 
Sleeping 8 hours at 70 calories per hour . . 560 
Awake 16 hours at 77 calories per hour . . . 1232 
Add for work as tailor 8 hours at 44 cal- 
ories 352 

2144 
After this fashion one might calculate his food re- 
quirements had he followed occupations other than 
that of tailor: 

Calories of 
metabolism 
Occupation per day 

Bookbinder ' 2440 

Shoemaker 2510 

Carpenter 3100 

Metal worker 2900 

Painter 2950 

Stonemason 4200 

Man sawing wood 4800 

These figures make no allowance for walking to or 
from the place of employment. 

The data here given are inadequate to cover the indus- 
trial situation, but they show clearly that heavy work 
cannot be accomplished without a sufficient amount 
of food-fuel. 

The food-fuel with which to accomplish work is 



CALORIES IN COMMON LIFE 35 

necessary not only for the soldier, but for the workman 
behind the line, and it should be adequate in quantity, 
satisfactory in quality, and not exorbitant in cost. 

In virtue of the world-wide scarcity of food, the work 
of the individual should be worthy of the food which he 
eats. 

Tables showing the cost of various wholesome food- 
stuffs about July 1, 1917, are here reproduced for the 
benefit of the reader. The tables were prepared by 
Dr. F. C. Gephart and issued by the Department of 
Health of the City of New York in a leaflet edited by 
Doctors Holt, La Fetra, Pisek, and Lusk on the subject 
of food for children. If the world is seeking after en- 
ergy in the form of food-fuel, the world is rightly en- 
titled to understand the value of its purchases. It 
must be clearly understood that people are always des- 
tined to look with hopeful anticipation toward the en- 
joyment of a meal. They will instinctively "eat cal- 
ories" just as they instinctively "eat pounds." They 
buy pounds of food, and they could buy more intelli- 
gently if they knew the energy value of what they buy. 

Cost of 1000 Price per 
rry i si a j! T-. a calories, pound, 

Table 1 — Cost of Fats. cents cents 

Cottonseed oil 7.3 31 

Oleomargarine 8.5 30 

Peanut butter 8.8 25 

Butter 11.9 43 

Olive oil 12.1 51 

Bacon 13.8 37 

Bacon, sliced, in jars 23.8 65 

Cream (extra heavy, 40 per cent.) . . 37.7 65 (1 pint) 



36 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

Cost of 1000 Price per 

_, _ _ . _ , calories, pound, 

Table 2 — Cost of Cereals. cents cents 

Cornmeal, in bulk 3.6 6 

Hominy, in bulk 3.6 6 

Broken rice, in bulk 3.7 6 

Oatmeal, in bulk 3.8 7 

Samp, in bulk 4.2 7 

Quaker Oats, in package 4.4 8 

Macaroni, in package 4.5 8 

Wheat flour, in bulk 4.6 8 

Malt breakfast food, in package .... 4.8 8 

Pettijohn, in package 5.3 9 

Cream of Wheat, in package 5.7 10 

Farina, in package 5.9 10 

Cracked wheat, in bulk 5.9 10 

Pearl barley, in package 6.0 10 

Barley flour, in bulk 6.1 10 

Whole rice, in bulk 6.1 10 

Wheatena, in package 8.1 14 

Table 3 — Cost of Ready-to-serve Cereals. 

Shredded Wheat Biscuit 7.8 13 

Grape-nuts 8.6 15 

Force 9.4 16 

Corn Flakes 11.7 20 

Puffed rice 23.5 38 

Table 4 — Cost of Vegetables. 

White potatoes 12.9 4.0 

Turnips 20.0 2.5 

New beets 27.6 5.0 

Onions 29.3 6.0 

Spinach 30.0 3.3 

Green peas 39.2 10.0 

Lima beans 39.2 10.0 



CALORIES IN COMMON LIFE 37 

Cost of 1000 Price per 

calories, pound, 

cents cents 

Cauliflower 42.9 6.0 

Carrots 50.0 8.0 

String-beans 55.6 10.0 

Squash 76.2 8.0 

Lettuce 89.4 7.0 

Celery 214.0 15.0 

Table 5 — Cost of Breadshtffs. 

Ginger-snaps 6.3 12.0 

Graham bread 8.2 10.3 

White bread 8.5 10.3 

Rye bread 8.7 10.3 

Graham crackers 9.2 18.0 

Soda crackers 9.4 18.0 

French rolls 10.8 14.0 

Uneeda Biscuit 12.4 24.0 

Table 6 — Cost of Proteins. 

Milk (Grade A) 20.0 13.0 (1 quart) 

Roast beef (rib) 23.4 26.0 

Buttermilk 26.5 9.0 (1 quart) 

Lamb chops (loin) 32.7 43.0 

Lamb chops (rib) 34.9 38.0 

Young codfish (fresh) 38.6 12.0 

Chicken (roasting) 41.3 32.0 

Eggs 44.7 45.0 (1 dozen) 

Beefsteak (round) 50.4 34.0 

Table 7— Cost of Fruit. 
Fresh (in season) : 

Bananas 23.0 6 

Apples 23.7 5 

Oranges 65.0 10 



38 FOOD IN WAR TIME 

Cost of 1000 Price per 
. calories, pound, 

Dried: cents cents 

Prunes 8.4 10 

Apples 11.1 15 

Peaches 12.5 15 

Apricots 15.5 20 

Table 8— Cost of Syrup. 

Cane sugar 4.5 8 

Karo corn syrup 5.7 8 

A British scientific commission has reported to Par- 
liament that if the workman be undernourished he may, 
by grit and pluck, continue his labor for a certain time, 
but in the end his work is sure to fail. It makes no 
difference what the nutritive condition of the person is, 
if a certain job involving muscular effort is to be done it 
always requires a definite amount of extra food-fuel 
to do it. Rubner, the greatest German authority on 
nutrition, excited grossly inappropriate hilarity in the 
comic press of his country by showing that a poor 
woman who waited several hours in line in order to re- 
ceive the dole of fat allowed her by the government 
actually consumed more of her own body fat in the 
effort of standing during those hours than she obtained 
in the fat given her when her turn to receive it came at 
last. 

A method by which food-fuel can readily be saved 
with benefit to the nation and to the individual is for 
the overfat to reduce their weight. This has been done 
with drastic severity in Germany. I have heard from 



INDEX 



Alcoholic beverages, 41 
Appetite, 23, 35, 41 

Balanced ration, biological 

analysis of, 9 
Basal metabolism, definition 
of, 24 
of boys, 26, 29 
of men, 26 
table, 28 
of women, 27 
Butter, 8 

Cabbage, 7 

Calorie, definition, 24 

Calories, cost of, 35 

Calorimeter, 24 

Cane sugar, 41 

Carbohydrates and muscular 

work, 40 
Chittenden, 16 
Corn and pellagra, 10 

in Italy, 7 

quantity available, 11 

reasons for using, 10 

syrup, 41 
Cream, use of, 1 1 



Diet, a balanced, 7 
a proper, 23 
Italian, 7 
of purified food-stuffs, 9 

Du Bois, measurement of sur- 
face area, 26 



Economy in diet, 8 
Emaciation, metabolism in, 

39 
Energy of sun, relation of life 

to, 23 

Fasting, metabolism in, 25 
Foods, cost of, 35 



Graham bread, 16 
Graham, Sylvester, 16 
Green leaves in diet, 8 



Heat production in man, 24 
Hindhede's dietary, 14 



Life, nature of, 25 



45 



46 



INDEX 



Meat and muscle work, 18 
desirability of, 15 
economic production of, 19, 

20 
in hot weather, 18, 43 
restricted diet of, in America, 
18,20 
in England, 19 
in Germany, 18 
specific dynamic action of, 
17 
Meatless dietary, 14 
Men, metabolism of, 27 
Metabolism, definition of, 26 
in emaciation, 39 
in fasting, 25 
Milk, cost of, 13 
economic production of, 19, 

20 
food value, 8, 13, 14 
in pellagra, 10 
Mineral salts, 8, 23, 25 
Muscle work, 25, 30 

and carbohydrates, 40 

and diet, 17 

and fasting, 17 

and protein, 18 

and undernutrition, 38, 39 

Occupation and metabolism, 
carrying a load, 31 
climbing, 32 
industrial, 33 



Occupation and metabolism, 
posture, 30 

running, 30-32 

walking, 30 
Oleomargarin, 12 
Olive oil, 8 
Overfat people, 38 
Oxidation of food-stuffs, 24 

Peanut butter, 12 

Pellagra, 9 

Pork, economic production of, 

19, 20, 21 
Potato diet, 15 

Rules of saving and safety, 43 

Substitution of foods, 43 

historical, 11 
Summary, 43 

Surface area and heat produc- 
tion, 26 

Undernutrition, 38 
and labor, 38 

Vegetable oils, use of, 12 
Vegetarianism, 16 
Vitamins, 8, 23 

Weight, reduction of, 39 
Women, metabolism of, 27 



